The Mind
by DeadlyMarionette
Summary: The story of how Melissa first met Rex in the secret hour.


Hello, everyone! I am attempting my first chapter fanfiction:D Well, it's going to be short, probably only two or three chapters, but a chapter fanfiction nonetheless! ;P Um, yeah... This is just my take on how Melissa met Rex. Probably completely inaccurate. Whatever. xD Right, onto the story! xD

Disclaimer: Come on, do you honestly think I own Midnighters? If I did, this would be in a book, not a fanfiction site! xD

(Oh, by the way, I've forgotten what age Melissa and Rex met. If you happen to know, _please_ tell me! Thanks! D )

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_When's that TV show...I'm hungry!...Why wont he shut...to sleep!...quiet...so much fun...can't wait...hope she doesn't..._

Even through the ridiculously loud screeches of heavy metal guitarists and vocals, an eight-year-old Melissa could hear the muddled, unclear screeches of Friday night thoughts. Normal nights were bad enough, but _Friday_ nights were horrible. They were nearly as unbearable as dreaded _school_ days. Nearly. At least when she was at home, she was able to drown out some of the migraine-inducing commotion with heavy metal cords.

It was like she didn't have a mind of her own. Constant thoughts invading her brain; thought's that weren't _hers_. It was as if she had no privacy in the world. No matter where she was or what she did, there was always at least one stray thought pounding at her skull, corroding her mind down to nothing.

Well, _almost_ always. There was one time when there weren't any voices at all. That sweet, blissful hour of perfect _silence_. It just didn't come often enough.

And so, on nights such as tonight, Melissa could be found lying onto of her white-sheeted bed, glancing ever so often at the alarm clock on her bed stand. Midnight just couldn't come quick enough.

It did frighten her, the Bluetime did. As much as she loved silence, it was still so, well, _silent. _She couldn't remember the first time she'd been in it, but she knew that it had been a long time before she'd ever left her room. For a long time, she had just stayed in her bed, basking in the complete silence.

And then she'd ventured out into the rest of the house. That had been a frightening experience. As detached as she was to the rest of the world, she still did feel some connection to her parents--_love_ was going a bit far—and seeing them so deathly stiff had been...shocking. She still didn't dare venture into her parent's room when the secret hour began.

It had taken her even longer to dare venture out of the house. See, it wasn't a _complete_ silence that the secret hour brought on, more of a simplistic silence. There were thoughts, but they certainly weren't human. They weren't as complicated as human thoughts, and never spoke words. Those minds, Melissa could deal with.

That first time she had ventured out had been fairly safe. She'd been about four or five—she wasn't good at remembering those types of things—and she'd finally gotten up the courage to venture outside. Not to mention she was finally large enough to be able to attempt climbing out her second story window. She didn't dare go past the living room to go out the front door, in case her parents had stayed up in the living room watching TV. She didn't want to see them frozen.

It had been beautiful. Wait, scratch that. It had been _amazing._ Simply amazing. She'd ventured out on a night similar to the night Jessica had, years later; a night when it had been raining. It had been breathtaking, to put it mildly. It was a scene that Melissa never got tired of seeing. Those thousands of shimmering diamonds glistening completely still in the air, dropping with quiet, icy splashes as she touched them and broke the spell. She'd spent the entire secret hour out there, mentally berating herself for never venturing out of her house earlier. She'd been soaked when she returned home, and her parents fretted over her the whole day, worrying that she'd become sick. It was the first time she'd been able to stand their probing and constant touches. Just the idea of being able to return to the glistening paradise of diamonds kept her sane.

The second night had been disappointing, really. It hadn't rained that night, and therefore no raindrops were left frozen in the air. Everything held a cold sort of beauty, seeing as it was all bathed in the blue light of the secret hour, but it just wasn't the same. Melissa spent that second visit outside wandering blindly around, dressed in pajamas and barefoot. It was then, as she wandered farther and farther from her home, that she first tasted the human mind.

She'd always felt it, but it was a distant mind, and therefore weak. She'd just passed it off as one of those simple minds that seemed to live in the secret hour. However, as she walked farther away from her home, it became stronger, and she recognized it as a human mind. The first one she'd met in the secret hour.

She'd felt slightly appalled. She _liked_ the silence. She'd liked the solitude and peace of this world that only she had. She didn't want another _human_ invading it. She'd had no desire to find that human at the time. Even then, she'd felt some small loneliness in this silent-hour, but it was small, and not nearly enough to make her forget the invasion of her mind during every other hour of the day.

She'd turned and ran back to her house.

When midnight had fallen the next day, she once again tasted that faint human mind in her head. She wished that she'd never ventured out far enough to recognize it, because now it was there, pounding at her skull. She'd pushed it away as best as she could before going outside once more.

That was the night she'd first discovered the monsters.

She'd mistaken it at first for a bird. She'd been completely caught off guard, seeing that large black shape flying above her. She'd never seen _anything_ move in the secret hour before. Curious, she'd moved forward to investigate. She'd been horrified to discover that the bird wasn't a bird at all; it was a _snake. _ A snake with wings. And it was flying straight at her.

She'd been too shocked to scream, and had just stood there, mouth open. The winged-snake had flown circles over her head, only to be joined by two more, moments later. And then they were on the ground. Four of them, slithering quietly towards her, violet eyes glimmering in the blue light.

Melissa had screamed then, and ran as quickly as she could back to her room. For many nights after that, she'd stayed boarded up in her room, never daring to venture out. When she finally did get the courage to venture out, she always brought weapons. She'd discovered on her own that steel—new steel, she found—worked well against the monsters.

And then she'd started listening for The Mind.

It had taken a long time, but the more she concentrated, the easier it had been for her to hear the mind. It was lonely, and scared just as she was. Alone in the blue time. And yet, just like her, filled with awe and wonder of it. It became almost like a friend, and it was the first time she'd ever been glad to have the curse that was her ability to hear thoughts.

She'd yearned for the secret hour, and went through the daylight hours a bit more cheerfully. She'd still hated social interaction, but she stayed sane.

Of course, it was difficult. Even the secret hour and her friend The Mind couldn't stop her from slowly breaking under the crushing weight of the thoughts that plagued her. Slowly, she began slipping into insanity, once again ceasing to speak, never interacting, doing nothing.

And so, she decided to seek out The Mind.

A sudden stillness brought her out of her thoughts. A complete silence, where the thoughts of humans just abruptly stopped, mid-thought. Even the heavy-metal cords ceased their screeching.

And there it was; The Mind.

Smiling Melissa slowly removed the headphones, placing them on her bed and the hoping off. Tonight, she had decided to seek out that mind.

Opening up her window quickly, she put one leg over the sill before hoping up, turning around once she hung outside the window and dropping down with a soft _thud_. She quickly glanced around her, holding up a small, glittering kitchen knife. Seeing no darkling's, she nodded to herself.

And then the little girl dressed in cowboy pajama's began to run off in the same direction she had on her second night outside in the secret hour, searching for The Mind,

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Meh, that was bad. x.x And so _short_. I really didn't expect to write it all out the way I did. Maybe I should have just written it out in many chapters, explaining each time she went into the Bluetime. Yeah, I'll do that some other time. Just enjoy this really lame fanfiction. xD Please correct nay grammar/spelling errors! D Thank you!


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